Economic Reform and Democracy (A Journal of Democracy Book)

The emergence of new democracies in Eastern Europe has raised anew the question of the relationship between economic reform and political liberalization. Should economic reform come first, then political liberalization? Or political reform first, followed by economic change? Or both at the same time? In Economic Reform and Democracy Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner bring together a distinguished group of authorities to examine this question as it relates to Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Topics include the challenges of consolidation; the myth of the authoritarian advantage; the second stage of reform in Latin America; linkages between politics and economics; the case for radical reform; going beyond shock therapy; the puzzle of East Asian exceptionalism; an alternative for Africa; the ability of the Middle East to compete; democratization and business interests; the politics of safety nets; and the problems of simultaneous transitions.

Contributors: Larry Diamond, Marc F. Plattner, Stephan Haggard, Robert R. Kaufman, José María Maravall, Moisés Naím, Joan M. Nelson, Barbara Geddes, Anders Åslund, Leszek Balcerowixz, Padma Desai, Minxin Pei, Adebayo Adedeji, Thomas Callaghy, Nicholas van de Walle, Henri Barkey, John D. Sullivan, William Douglas, Carol Graham, Leslie Elliot Armijo, Thomas J. Biersteker, and Abraham F. Lowenthal.

Larry Diamond, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution onWar, Revolution, and Peace, and Marc F. Plattner, counselor at the National Endowment for Democracy, are co-directors of the International Forum for Democratic Studies. They are coeditors of the Journal of Democracy and of two previous collections of essays available from Johns Hopkins, The Global Resurgence of Democracy and Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy Revisited.